Walter Smith

Name: Walter Smith Gender: Male Age: 17 (was homeschooled for most of his life, got bored and "convinced" his father to allow him to enroll in public school, so he started late) Grade: 10th School: Bathurst High Homeroom: Mrs. Rowena’s homeroom. Hobbies and Interests: He's the son of a politician, albeit more corrupt than the one that spawned Jack Bexley, and he occasionally "helps" his father with "business". Some say he tortures and murders people for fun and doing so to attractive females arouses him (he refused to confirm or deny the second, and when asked about the first he said "I do it sometimes, it's kind of cool I guess, now are you going to get out of my face or is something bad going to have to happen to you?" to the kid who worked up the courage to ask.). Another, rather odd in comparison to his other ones, hobby of his is watching Western films, though this is largely irrelevant.

Appearance: Most people would describe him as "creepy looking", but whether that is because of his actual physical appearance or his reputation depends on the person asked. He is pretty tall, around six feet, and also thin, with the only outstanding muscle groups on him being the gut and leg area due to an error made in his exercise plan (which is in contrast to his "greedy pig of a father" as he calls him. Ryan Smith is almost as wide around as a large globe and is seemingly made of several layers of flesh thrown onto each other. Walter has a relatively easy time bending his father to his will, since Ryan finds his son to be somewhat intimidating.). His eyes are hazel and uninteresting, so they will not be mentioned much, though the pupils of said eyes tend to always look dilated, making the majority of the eye appear to be hazel. It makes his stare rather disconcerting. He has dark brown hair he has shaped into an almost "greaser" like look, long on the back and with some of the front going down to his forehead, allowed less growth on the sides and top but still thick there. His face would be described as “handsome” if it weren’t for his overall intimidating demeanor, with a well defined jaw line, rather “smooth” facial features unbroken by acne or excess facial hair and eyebrows somewhere in the middle between “thin” and “bushy”. He tends to wear a casual black sweatshirt along with jeans.

Biography: The individual known as Walter Smith was conceived during a night of intercourse between a corrupt politician and his recent wife. How the wife could control her urge to regurgitate long enough to marry and breed with him will forever be a mystery however, as she died of complications in childbirth. Considering the personality and position of Ryan Smith, a reasonable conclusion is that he blackmailed her into doing so, but this is Walter’s history, not his mother’s. Regardless, when Walter was born he seemed to be completely normal, other than the slight oddity that was the appearance of his eyes. Growing up however, he started to act stranger and stranger. His father and his hired caretakers all noticed this, but did not know what the problem was. This got more and more disturbing as the years went on, by seven he had started to develop a vicious temper and equally vicious methods of dealing with said temper. By nine, he was exhibiting obvious pleasure in the pain of others. At twelve years three months and six days old, his father found him covered in blood holding a kitchen knife, one of his caretakers cowering on the ground clutching a partially severed hand and a certain area of his pants that was soaked in his blood, his chest also bloody. Looking up to see his father, the young Walter simply said “Oh, hello father. I did not see you there.”.

Deeply disturbed by this turn of events, Ryan talked Walter into going to a nearby psychiatrist for a psychological evaluation (much to Ryan’s relief, Walter accepted the idea with no struggle, though he refused to explain what happened to the caretaker, who sadly passed away on the way to the hospital a few minutes later). The evaluation results came as expected: Walter was a complete psychopath, he had been born that way. Anyone there for that event could easily tell you about the haunting quality Walter’s eyes had as he nodded at the results, seeming as if he had known in advance, but wanted professional confirmation. Just as disturbingly, they received word of the caretaker’s death shortly after they arrived back at Ryan’s mansion, but Walter showed no remorse. In fact, he merely shrugged and said “I suppose I should wash the stains out of the carpet.” and got to work doing so.

When the police went to investigate the death, Ryan told them it had been a robbery gone wrong, which they believed (though one officer needed “alternate” means of persuasion, namely bribery and Ryan threatening the lives of the officer’s entire family if he did not believe him.) due to his position. This would be the beginning of the true relation between political father and psychopathic son, the son doing as he wished while the father bailing him out of any trouble he got in and doing whatever he asked out of fear of ending up like that one caretaker, occasionally taking enemies of his into his house for Walter to “take care of”. Walter had complete diplomatic immunity, and both Smiths knew it. Of course, what they also knew was who really was in control of the alliance. Ryan was secretly frightened of his son, doing as he desired to avoid drawing his ire. From then on, people looking at the Smith Mansion felt a sense of dread very similar to that Harper Lee and her main character Scout described the Radley House as giving in To Kill a Mockingbird. For the next few years, people in Denton had a habit of disappearing. Undesirables, derelicts, bums, drunks, political enemies, it was almost like Nazi Germany.

Of course, around the time he was fourteen, the gang war between the Jackals and Hellbirds was in full swing as the son of the assassinated Hellbirds leader took control and swore revenge against the animalistic gang. His actions in his time would set the stage for many of his relationships, so listen up. Both sides wanted the politicians on their side for an advantage, and the Jackals approached him first. Three high-ranking members showed up at his door, asking to meet with him. Not trusting them in his house, he went out to meet them. Here they spoke to him about joining them, which Walter was thoroughly disinterested in. The members were persistent and tempers started to flare. Finally, Walter stopped them.

“Look, you do not want to make me or my family angry, and you are starting to. I advise that you leave.” one of the gang members made the stupid move of challenging him after he said this.

“And what will you do if we don’t?”

“This.” Walter replied, and much to the shock of the other two, he ripped out the member’s eyes, kicking him to the ground while he screamed. The two unharmed Jackals took the hint and ran, but the first wasn’t so lucky. Before he could go into the inevitable shock, Walter had stomped on his throat three times, which finished him off (actually, the first two broke his neck, the third was just to get rid of some stress.). Viewing this with no more disgust or remorse than he had the caretaker he had killed when he was twelve, he simply said “I tried to warn you.” to the corpse and went inside, finding his father and getting him to get rid of the corpse. Yet another person had “disappeared” and the case went cold as all the cases Walter was responsible for did. Yet another notch in Walter’s evil belt.

Some time later, Ryan was approached by a contingent of Hellbirds, who had heard about the incident with the Jackals and relayed a message from their new leader, stating their proposal to act as bodyguards against enemies like the Jackals (who would likely attempt revenge for the incident, which they actually did on two occasions, both times fought off by the Hellbirds.). Ryan quickly accepted. Time passed and life went on, the Hellbirds not interfering directly in Walter’s activities except when they needed to do the job they were there for. At sixteen Walter convinced his father to allow him to enroll in the nearby Bathurst High School (unknown to him, Hellbirds leader Alexander Stevens and a few other members were also students there) and a few fights between the rival gangs happened near his mansion, but otherwise life was still normal. Later that year, the gang war ended in a Hellbird victory. To celebrate, a good deal of the Hellbirds’ membership went down to a nearby bar to essentially drink themselves to oblivion, while Alex asked him to show up at his apartment to discuss matters that were Hellbirds business.

When he arrived there, Alex was accompanied by several other members, and gave him a beer can while they discussed what to do with the new territory and the business arrangement with the Smith family. After about an hour of discussion, the settlement was reached that the Hellbirds would continue to act as bodyguards of the Smith family and would also take on the role of “enforcers” while Walter attended Bathurst. Of course, Walter had been drinking the can during the discussion, believing turning it down would offend the gang leader (who was of course a hardened criminal, even if he didn’t like it. Best way to survive talking to a hardened criminal is not to offend or anger him, whether you‘re a psychopathic son of a corrupt politician or not.). Since he had not done so before, he unfortunately did not have a very high alcohol tolerance, and by the time both parties agreed to the conditions of the deal and shook hands, he was apparently intoxicated. Staggering out the door, he heard Alex and another member conversing on whether or not it was a good idea to become his permanent ally (or “attack dog”, as the unknown member put it). Unfortunately, relations between the political family and the street gang would be forever soured by the following event.

While leaving through the hall in the apartment building and heading towards the staircase that would take him back down to the lower floors and eventually to the exit, he encountered Alex’s older sister, who was coming home from her part time job as a waitress in a nearby restaurant. Drunk and knowing his judgment was impaired, he stood still as she came up, trying to figure out what to do in the situation. When realizing he was standing in her way, the girl at first greeted him and politely asked him to move, but when he showed no signs of response she tried to push past him. This proved to be a mistake as, when her shoulder brushed his arm, he grabbed her by the arm and pushed her against the wall. Before she could protest, he was on her, kissing her while forcing her down to the floor. As soon as she was free to, she screamed, that coupled with the noise made with her other attempts at struggle, alerting Alexander and the other Hellbirds in his apartment as Walter tore her shirt. Due to being drunk, he was still clumsily trying to remove her bra and stop her struggling when he heard the footsteps and looked up just in time to see the sole of Alexander's shoe heading right towards his head. The kick caught him right between the eyes, sending him tumbling/falling down the stairs and hitting the wall with a stunned "thud". When he got up, they were on him, though especially the enraged Alexander Stevens, each beating at him with no mercy. He fought back, and even hit Alex with a surprise headbutt and took another Hellbird out with a strike to the throat, but his intoxicated state made him no match for them, and he was eventually thrown down the second set of stairs into the main lobby/entrance of the apartment complex, where the back of his head was smashed against the floor until he completely blacked out. Moving quickly, Alex and a few other Hellbirds dropped him on the front door of his mansion, leaving a note pinned to his shirt, threatening to kill Walter if he ever showed up near Alex's home again. Walter had many bruises, a sizeable bump on the head, a bloody nose and the hair on the back of his head was matted with blood, but they would fade in time.

So far, he has lived somewhat normally after that, sure there was the occasional corrupt "favor" or someone randomly disappearing, and there was once a rumor circulating about several grisly "accidents" connected to him that he had to shoot down, but nothing too out of the ordinary for him has happened since then (key word's "for him").

Advantages: He has killed before, and enjoys it. This willingness to kill and maim his competition will give him a leg up in the Program.

Disadvantages: He has never used a gun in his life, thus he will be given a certain handicap in the event that he recieves a gun as a weapon. He also prefers to scare and "toy with" opponents, this reduces his stealth and could get him killed. Sometime before the Program started, he developed a sick obsession with a female classmate by the name of Mariavel Varella. This could distract him on the island. He also has many enemies, all of whom will likely be gunning for him come the start of the game, meaning he will constantly have to keep an eye over his shoulder.

Number: Male Student no. 15

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Designated Weapon: Rock Conclusions: History does seem to repeat itself, v1 had Marcus Roddy and the fan and it seems v2 has B15 with a rock. It saddens me when such great potential goes to waste, not enough to give him a real weapon of course, but enough for me to cackle wildly at his attempt at survival.

'The above biography is as written by Slayer. No edits or alterations to the author's original work have been made.'

Evaluations
Handled by: Slayer, Mitsuko2

Kills: Jin Li-Jen

Killed by: Mariavel Varella

Collected Weapons: Rock (designated weapon, left in residential district after fight with Blake Ross), shiv (made from glass shard and tape, broken in fight with Jin Li-Jen), boning knife (taken from Jin Li-Jen)

Allies: None

Enemies: Blake Ross, Jin Li-Jen, everyone else, Steven Wilson.

Mid-game Evaluation:

End-game Evaluation:

Memorable Quotes: "You know Mister Gold, Art class doesn't really start until he shuts up." - Walter describes one of his teachers in Pregame.

Threads
''The various threads that contained Walter. In order from first to finish.''

Pre-Game:
 * A Meeting Of Kindred Souls

Version II:
 * Scrounging for Gear
 * Stopping for the Night - Content Warning
 * Revenge is a Dish Better Served Cold

Your Thoughts
''Whether you were a fellow handler in SOTF or just an avid reader of the site, we'd like to know what you thought about Walter Smith. What did you like, or dislike, about the character? Let us know here!''
 * I wouldn't really say Walter is a good character, in all honesty. Despite the profile being sorta funny in how much it tries to set up Walter as like, this edgy evil figure, this doesn’t really apply in the game itself and in all honesty he’s just sorta boring for the most part. He’s psychotic, but not in a way that’s really interesting, as instead of letting this show through his thought processes or emotional core we’re just constantly told by the narrative that he’s psychotic over and over again, and his actions (going into great detail on how he cuts a dudes dick off, raping Mariavel) are pretty clearly aiming for shock value and setting him up to be like, the big villain of V2 - but robbing him of a proper emotional core that a villain really needs to be seen as interesting and more than a one note psycho who does things just because they’re seen as bad things to do by the writer.

Walter also suffers mechanically as well, and on a pure writing levels there’s a couple things he does that just irk me as a reader. During fight scenes with other handlers - such as with Blake and Mariavel - there’s this thing Walter does where he goes into hypotheticals on what happens depending on which actions succeed or not, which reeks of GMing and as a reader takes me right out of what’s happening in front of me. In addition, his narrative is loaded with contradictions, stating one thing and then shortly after saying something that contradicts this (an example being “Most could not tell from a simple glance, but the boy was a total psychopath. Almost everyone knew of that fact, and his random outbursts of violence,” stating a fact and then contradicting it the very next sentence), which as a reader confuses me and makes it harder to understand what the narrative is trying to say, which given the issues with the narrative already doesn’t make it any more interesting or pleasant to read.

I will say that Slayer/TBH has written good characters before, but to be honest Walter is far from one of them, and to be honest isn’t someone I’d really recommend at all. - Yugikun